Ethics in Business
Business ethics can be seen from two perspectives. The first, highly personal view of ethics depends to a great extent upon a person's upbringing and life experience. Thus, if a person was raised to be ethical and moral in a general sense, and has been so throughout life, it is likely that he or she would be an ethical business person as well. Secondly there is the perspective from a business point-of-view. Some have found that it is a sound business principle to be ethical, and that sound ethics also mean a sound bottom line. However, it does appear that ethics in business are experiencing a crisis. Some blame inadequate business courses for this.
O'Neill (2002) for example blames scandals such as those caused by Enron and WorldCom on business programs in schools that fail to make ethics a priority of teaching. Instead, he claims, the ideal of making money and rising to the top as a CEO has become like winning the lottery. The main...
It should also however by taken into account that when money corrupts business people to the degree where scandals are caused, the business world can learn from it. The point is that if schools teach ethics adequately in the first place, scandals can be avoided and business can operate in an uninterrupted fashion. The problem is however that many appear to get away with unethical business practices, and even to profit from this.
Salopek (2001) emphasizes that business ethics need not be considered from a personal viewpoint alone, and that it is indeed better for business and profit to have a sound ethical base. The basis for this argument is the public's role in business. When a concrete commitment to ethics is made, the public tends to have more confidence in a company, and is more likely to invest. Salopek for example sites Management Review's survey of companies committing to ethics against those who do not. Companies…
